Was it really the US that 'got him'?
Reports persist that Kurds first captured Hussein, drugged him, then left him for US troops.
It's become a world famous phrase: "Ladies and gentlemen, we got him."
More than two weeks after the US civil administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, uttered those words at a press conference in Baghdad, reports continue to circulate that Saddam Hussein was first captured by a Kurdish-led intelligence unit, drugged, then put into the "spider hole" to be taken by the US military.
The
Sydney Morning Herald reports that US forces took Mr. Hussein into custody Saturday, Dec. 13 around 8.30 p.m. local time, but "sat on the news" until 3 p.m. the next day. However, the
Herald points out that in the early hours of Sunday, Dec. 14 a Kurdish language wire service reported explicitly: "Saddam Hussein was
captured by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). A special intelligence unit led by Qusrat Rasul Ali, a high-ranking member of the PUK, found Saddam Hussein in the city of Tikrit, his birthplace."
According to the
Herald, the Western news media in Baghdad were "electrified" by the first media account of the capture, which was from a Tehran-based news agency, but quickly began to rely "almost exclusively on accounts from US military and intelligence organizations."
An intriguing question is why Kurdish forces were allowed to join what the US desperately needed to present as an American intelligence success - unless the Kurds had something vital to contribute to the operation so far south of their usual area of activity.
According to the
The Sunday Herald of Scotland, before Western press agencies ran a story saying Hussein was "captured in a raid by US forces backed by Kurdish fighters," Mr. Rasul Ali had already been on air at the Iranian satellite station al-Alam insisting that his "PUK fighters
sealed the area off before the arrival of the US forces." Pointing out that Rasul Ali's unit has an impressive track record, including the arrest of Iraqi vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan and a "crucial role in pinpointing and storming" the villa where Hussein's sons died in a shootout, the
Herald says that "the PUK and Rasul Ali's special 'Baathist hunters' have, it seems, been doing what the Americans have consistently failed to do."
So why would the US military not want to give full credit to the Kurds for Hussein's capture? The
Herald suggests a motive: "[PUK leader] Jalal Talabani's links to Tehran have always worried Washington, and having his party grab the grand prize from beneath their noses would be awkward to say the least."
The
DEBKA
file
, a website reputed to be edited by former Israeli intelligence agents, says that "seven anomalies point to one conclusion: Saddam Hussein was
not in hiding; he was a prisoner." Among these "anomolies" are the length of his hair and beard, and that he appeared "beaten and hungry." The self-described
DEBKA
file
"analysts" believe that "his captors bargained for the $25 million prize the Americans promised for information leading to his capture alive or dead. The negotiations were mediated by Jalal Talabani's Kurdish PUK militia." The analysts also believe that Hussein may have been drugged.
Correspondences.org
, a populist news-compilation website, provides a long list of links to various news sources around the world, all with headlines saying Hussein was captured first by Kurds, drugged, then left for US troops. Of note, however, is that most of these links source the same article in the
Sunday Express
, a British tabloid. "Worrisome, but not unexpected," according to the author of a web blog on
Correspondences.org, "is the virtual silence of the US and British press" on the topic. The blog draws a comparison between the capture of Hussein and the rescue of Jessica Lynch suggesting they were both staged by the US military for PR purposes.
But, as the Islamic news and culture site
Khilafah.com reports, "conspiracy theories are rife." One such theory points out that a palm tree shown in US photographs of the scene following the capture has pre-ripened dates. Because dates ripen in the summer, the theory goes, this is evidence that
Hussein may have been caught at least two months earlier.
The same article in
The Sunday Herald mentioned above dismisses these theories as "pretty fanciful stuff," but concludes by saying that "serious questions remain about the Kurdish role and whether at [the Dec. 14] Baghdad press conference, Paul Bremer was telling the whole truth."
In the meantime,
Fox News reports that Colonel James Hickey, the man who led the operation that found Hussein, says
Kurds played "no role" in his capture.
Also...
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•
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The Washington Post)
•
US steps up air security because of possible threats (
CNN)
•
Three FBI agents on trying to prevent another 9/11 (
The Christian Science Monitor)
•
Banned arms flowed into Iraq through Syrian firm (
The Los Angeles Times)
•
Al Qaeda links seen in attacks on top Saudi security officials (
The New York Times)
• Feedback appreciated. E-mail
Matthew Clark.
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